Our Story: From Barefoot to Bluestem

2008

Barefoot Gardens started in 2008 with a mission to feed our community. In our first year we grew veggies, cut flowers, and herbs for 12 families in our neighborhood. The CSA expanded over the next few years to almost 100 members, we started to do wholesale distribution of specialty herbs, edible flowers, and micro veggies through Zone 7, and became the place to get certified organic produce and cut flowers at our local farmer's market. Each year as the farms infrastructure grew and our skills improved, we became more confident that we were on the right path to becoming a sustainable farm.

2012

Linda started Barefoot Botanicals - a local herb shop with a mission to connect people with plants. Herbal Education was the focus as teaching people about herbs was Linda's passion. Over a few years, the mission of this little herb shop started to become the mission of the farm too. In 2016, the two entities merged and we were on a new path to providing the Mid-Atlantic area with high quality medicinal and aromatic herbs.

2018

In 2018 we decided to build out a processing space on the farm. We knew we couldn't sustain our farm just with bulk fresh and dried herbs so this State Inspected processing space was going to be key to the long-term viability of our farm. It just made sense to bring everything in-house and control the process from Seed-To-Bottle. This was the only way we could feel confident in providing the highest quality extracts to our existing community of herbalists and a newfound community of bartenders looking for high quality extracts that they couldn't find in the market.

2022

Our farm is located at the crossroads of where Herbalists & Bartenders meet and our high quality botanical extracts are found from New York to Hawaii.

Like everyone else, we had to pivot to survive throughout the pandemic. The expansion of our on-farm educational programs was an easy transition as we had the outdoor space for everyone to feel comfortable and safe being around others. Plants were still growing and people wanted to learn more about our body systems, botany, and how to make their own botanical products.

Over the course of a few years, we transitioned our fresh herb CSA into a Cocktail CSA. Keeping in line with our mission to connect people with plants, we decided to teach people how important plants can be in crafting great cocktails, mocktails, and herbal sodas. We are working within the Farm-To-Table movement and just shifting the focus from what is on your plate to what you are putting in your glass!